A little on my Novalux 488nm DPSS. *PICS.*

[kingdave2357]

time to try and find a straight-through non-grounded HD15 cable... :banghead:

-Trevor

If you do manage to source them please share Id love to be able to get one of these lasers up and running!

 

[aryntha]

Trevor - did your 'smart' PSU light the laser on key turn from the start? I've heard some did... Mine is in the majority though, one of the ones that just says 'error'.

As far as the cable goes, In the meantime you can construct your own - if you're ok with self punishment... Get two HD15 connectors and shells from Radio Shack, and cut two lengths of Cat5 cable, and wire them all straight through.

Have an adult beverage handy. If anyone has wired their own serial cable, HD15 is exactly one more layer of pins worth of annoyance. That "middle" layer is a real pain. There may be custom cable shops that can make these but they're not cheap, and the problem is there are so many HD15 VGA cables out there that "appear" to be what you're looking for... and few other uses for the HD15 connector besides that.

I really wish these guys would have used DB15 instead of HD15. Still would have fit on the laser, and would have been much more available. Though, yes, I realize they weren't concerned about us

I'll be looking too, as I do want to replace my homebrew one with something a little more substantial.

 

[Trevor]

Trevor - did your 'smart' PSU light the laser on key turn from the start? I've heard some did... Mine is in the majority though, one of the ones that just says 'error'.

Mine does not. As far as I can tell, these smart PSU's can't, but I'll have to play with it more. When you have everything hooked up to the smart PSU, is the error LED still lit? When I hook up everything to mine and turn the key, the error LED goes out (just the 5v in is lit) but it doesn't actually lase on its own.

I got my system stable at 7mW for 30+ minutes today (before I changed settings to do more testing). I managed to coax 23mW out of it, but when I did that the output steadily dropped until it stopped lasing. ><

I'm going to work on getting it stabilized higher. If I don't get my data compiled and posted tonight, I'll get it up in the next few days. It's already 10:20 EST and I'm just sitting down to work with it more.

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Hmm.. Care to reveal what you did to get it to start lasing with the smart PSU? I think my error LED may go out, but, it certainly never lases.

 

[Trevor]

Hmm.. Care to reveal what you did to get it to start lasing with the smart PSU? I think my error LED may go out, but, it certainly never lases.

Okay. Have you managed to get any reply from it via serial? You need to connect via a M/F straight-through cable.

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Am in my "lab" doing that right now.

With no serial cable connected, everything else hooked up, turning the key gives "ERROR" which does not go out. .. Hooking it up via serial now.

19200 8-N-1? Any pointers on flow control? (hardware? none?)

 

[Trevor]

Am in my "lab" doing that right now.

With no serial cable connected, everything else hooked up, turning the key gives "ERROR" which does not go out. .. Hooking it up via serial now.

19200 8-N-1? Any pointers on flow control? (hardware? none?)

Do you have a shorted 3.5mm plug in the interlock port?

And yes, 19200 8-N-1.

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Ok. I actually got something going. Basically if I type enough characters, I get "Syntax error:" coming from the PSU.

Hitting some characters and 'enter' doesnt seem to elicit that response.
It seems to give "Syntax Error" when i enter a certain number of characters in a string.

I'm set 19200/N/8/1/No flow.

And yes, I have a shorted 1/8th in the interlock port --

UPDATE: Okay, ERROR is only on now when the key is OFF. When the key is ON, now, "5VDC" is green, but nothing else is on. The laser is off.

 

[Trevor]

Ok. I actually got something going. Basically if I type enough characters, I get "Syntax error:" coming from the PSU.

Hitting some characters and 'enter' doesnt seem to elicit that response.
It seems to give "Syntax Error" when i enter a certain number of characters in a string.

I'm set 19200/N/8/1/No flow.

And yes, I have a shorted 1/8th in the interlock port.

cs0>
i 0>
l1>
i 0.4>

Perhaps yours will be more stable than mine.

EDIT: That 400 should have been 0.4... current is measured in amps, not milliamps.

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Are you using ">" to signify CR/Enter, or should I actually use that in the command?
EDIT. Nevermind... No output though, okay:

cs0>
i(space)0>
l1>
i(space)400>

"Laser on" light goes on --- laser doesn't turn on. Hmm....

 

[Trevor]

Are you using ">" to signify CR/Enter, or should I actually use that in the command?

It terminates the command, so yes. The reason "Syntax error: <text>" would pop up is because you eventually terminated a command.

-Trevor

 

[Trevor]

Are you using ">" to signify CR/Enter, or should I actually use that in the command?
EDIT. Nevermind... No output though, okay:

cs0>
i(space)0>
l1>
i(space)400>

"Laser on" light goes on --- laser doesn't turn on. Hmm....

i 0.4>, not i 400>.

That was a brain cramp on my part. I'd try...

i 0.1>
i 0.2>
i 0.3>
i 0.4>
i 0.5>

And stop when you get the best output. It will dim after a while as thermal conditions change.

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Okay, is there a startup delay that you know of?

Ok. Weird. Got it. Mine won't even lase until i 0.5 ... 500mA... weird.

 

[Trevor]

Okay, is there a startup delay that you know of?

Ok. Weird. Got it. Mine won't even lase until i 0.5 ... 500mA... weird.

Yeah, these things are crazy inefficient.

How long does it last?

-Trevor

 

[aryntha]

Not long at all. I seem to get "action" between i 0.41 and i 0.6 ... Hopefully we can't go high enough to blow these things.... it's weird, it seems the "dumb" supply regulates it better... I'd love to see that "Laser Lock" LED go on, and somehow have it automate the current.

 

[Prototype]

VECSEL diodes are harder to kill than normal ones, I wouldn't be too harsh on it, but it can take a bit more than most diodes.